Super Game Jam is an engaging new documentary series following some of the world’s most talented indie game developers doing what they do best. Filmed in five cities over a six month time period, each episode pairs two indie developers together for 48 hours and challenges them to create a game based on a theme suggested by their peers.

Watch Super Game Jam: Episode 1 (Streaming)

October 23, 2014

Filmmakers Bram Ruiter and Daniel Oliveira Carneiro and independent game label Devolver Digital announced today that the fifth and final episode of game development documentary series Super Game Jam is now available on Steam. Episode 5 follows Gunpoint developer Tom Francis and Remembering creator Liselore Goedhart as they design SimAntics based on the theme “simulation.” The series is also discounted with 25% off through the weekend to celebrate the launch of this next episode.

September 5, 2014

Game Compatibility

Super Game Jam is first and foremost a film project - the games created during each episode were developed in 48 hours. While they are all delightful, they are mostly unfinished and unpolished prototypes that may not function flawlessly or at all on some system configurations or operating systems. Technical support for these games will be minimal as the games themselves are provided purely as an extra bonus with the short films and were not prepared for standalone commercial releases.

About This Game

Super Game Jam is an engaging new documentary series following some of the world’s most talented indie game developers doing what they do best. Filmed in five cities over a six month time period, each episode pairs two indie developers together for 48 hours and challenges them to create a game based on a theme suggested by their peers. The series examines the creative process, technical skill, and friendships that form through a game jam event on a more personal and intimate level.

Five short films about creation of five short games released over five months.

Prototype versions of the game developed during each episode's jam.

Special features include behind the scenes footage, music, and promotional trailers.

Super Game Jam is an episodic documentary—in each of the five (30-minute-ish) episodes, two people get together and spend 48 hours making a game. Because each episode features different people, the entertainment value depends on ten individuals and the chemistry of five pairings. That's why episode one is, by far, my favorite. And why I could barely finish episodes two and four.

As others have mentioned, the technical quality varies dramatically throughout the documentary. The camera work in episode five is especially awful. You will also see the cameramen sometimes, which is just poor editing.

Each episode starts by showing you some things the jammers have made in the past, or are currently making. Then you get a game prompt (episode one's prompt, for example, is "breakup"), and a discussion of what the game will be. Then they start programming the game, making the music, making the art, and recording the sound, depending on the episode. There are points during each episode when they play the game. Mostly it's just the jammers discussing the game, with over-the-shoulder shots of their screens. The episodes finish with a quick play of the game, a short pub/house party segment of other people playing the game, and mini-interviews with the jammers talking about the experience/game.

A lot of people will find this boring. I found it boring.

The Application

SGJ isn't just five video files and five games. It's a surprisingly buggy, fullscreen-only application with absolutely no settings, which comes in the form of an 11.5 GB download. The video player has three features: pause, volume control, and seek. Thankfully, you can avoid the application altogether and view the videos in your preferred video player by browsing through the SGJ's files. (Which you should do if you have blurry video in SGJ's built-in video player.)

The Games

These are jam games. While some of them are cute, you probably won't play any of them for more than five minutes.

The Special Features

SGJ comes with "uncut discussions" and/or deleted scenes for each episode. Some are quite short (1 minute), others relatively long (18 minutes). And you probably won't watch them.

It also lets you listen to the music. I didn't like the music.

The Price

Is too high.

So

I really did enjoy episodes one and five. Some people enjoy all five episodes. If you think the entertainment you'll get is worth the price tag, then you should buy it. But maybe only when it's on sale.

Super Game Jam is an incredible idea and has inspired many to create games inwhich people canget together and make games in a very short time. It is clear that even the most experienced game designer or designers in general learn from these game jams.I felt that some of the camera movements and blurs where really OTT and really uneccery. It was really hard to follow and felt like a film student project. There could have been more time spent maybe POV shots of the designers creating the game or better questions asked as their designs seemed to have changed their ideas alittle or why they came to that conclusion in the end. It just felt alittle lost at times, but other than that it was inspiring!

5 Episodes each is really entertaining and shows how creator of indie games work.

Super Game Jam gives an insight of how people who worked on really good games such as Hotline Miami are working. It shows how they find ideas to a theme and how they are developing the game they are thinking of.You can also play the games they made in the episodes.

I really enjoyed seeing how the idea of making a game is evolving to something very good.

I recommend this Game/documentary because the games are fun to play and the documentaries are very interesting.

Well worth the asking price. If you've ever done a 48 hour game jam it's easy to relate to these developers. Watching each game come together in each episode was very entertaining and the footage was very well put together with a nice soundtrack. My only complaint is that you never grow to attached to any of the developers because each episode consists of new devs making a game in just 48 hours opposed to watching them and their game grow over an extended time. I would buy a sequel no questions asked.

Who would I recommend this for?Someone who's interested in hearing some known indie developers talk about game design ideas and see how design iteration happens during a game jam.

Who would I not recommend this for?Someone who wants to know how games are made.Someone who wants insight into the game industry.Someone who expects great cinematography.Someone who expects a story.

I bought it after all 5 episodes were out so I had no concerns over whether the price was worth it. For me, the second episode was the only slow one. I had no expectations of it being better than "Indie Game" so all in all it was worth the price for some entertainment in a topic I love.

This project is a reflection on the state of the game development community. It is often too common to see developers ask full price for a partially completed game. Now we have to pay full price on a film that fails to meet its first deadline.

I expected a little bit more technical overview and motivation for beginning game designers/developers.

First episode - Navigator

As I wrote at the beginning of the review it wasn't what i expected. It was a little bit too shallow for me I would expect a little bit more of a in-depth documentary rather than "This is buggy, hmm, I know how to fix it!" and proceed to fix it without any explanation or comment.

Even though 48 hours isn't that much I think they could make the episode longer than 30 minutes

The game itself seems to be pretty good though, the design feels a little bit more mobile orientated to me, but heck, what do i know?

I enjoy game jams, and really enjoyed episode 1. I have to question if the project is still going on because it's July 12 and the June episode has yet to be released. I get wanting to hold things back if it's not ready but let the fans know first. Especially paid fans.

My recommendation is a YES to watch the series but a NO on purchasing it until all the episodes are released.

What's here is good. Sadly, that's a single episode when the schedule says we should have three by now. When it's finished and all five are released, it might be worth the money. Based on the first one... eh. Wait for a sale.

And that "music" that starts the first episode? Please never do that again.

Super Game Jam is a documentary centered around a few pairs of indie developers as they face prompts in order to develop a game in 48 hours, in essence a game jam. With five "episodes" totaling around two and a half hours, as well as extras and deleted scenes, the games developed in each episode, and even the documentary's soundtrack, there's a surprising amount of content here. It's well shot, giving off an "indie" atmosphere, and showing how intimate a process like this is. If you're interested in either game design or development I'd recommend looking into this, if anything to see what it's like. I purchased it on sale, however having gone through it all I would've more than happily paid full price. Good stuff.

5 Great episodes showing the indie process with two people in each episode.

Getting the games themselves as well was a great surprise! They're some fun games and especially fun after seeing all the work put into them in the episodes! For a 7 dollar price tag, it's a must buy for any aspiring or already working indie developer.

This wasn't clear to me at first but when you buy this "thing" you get an interface that launches all the movies and games. I did run into a problem with one of the games hitting some errors and being unplayable. Might be because of the two controller requirement.

While I love the concept, I think it fell a little short but only because I was so disappointed by the creative process that many of the game designers went through. It really surprised me how boring and uncomfortable those design sessions were. Many of them didn't even get close to touching their creative potential and the games they produced are evidence of that. I think it's the starting format which is at fault. Who is asking these people to sit down side by side for the creative process? Yuk!

If you're a game designer, you have to watch this just because. Otherwise, not so much. Looking forward to the next one.

To be fair the first episode was a bit of a test run it seems. Episode 2 & 3 seem much more polished and especially 3 is super entertaining to watch. This really shows the creative process in indie development and the actuall end product of games that are produced are mere a side notice.

Chapter 1+2+3 ReviewWow, I am simply stunned.... I play games and use computers for science; making games is not what I do;

To watch these pairs of Game Designers go through the process of Conception, Programming, Art Creation, Execution, Testing and Re- Iteration in a period of 48 hours is truly exciting.... and humbling.... The people are Geniouses and an Inspiration to their Generation and beyond. They are Modern day Van Gogh's. Then, to be able to play their game after watching the movie is absolutly Exilirating.

Chapeau to the Film Crew and to the Producers: Mission accomplished. What an homage you have created to our modern world of digiculture. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

2015.02 Addendum - I stand by my verdict - Thumbs up.A simple survey of the reviews for Super Game Jam compared with patterns of votes (helpful vs not) in other reviews will demonstrate that 'a gang' have descended on this product and consistently voted all positive reviews down and voted all negative reviews up.

Now I do understand that many of you are upset because of delays, or you thought the price was to high, or you work in the industry and you think movie this is cr*p. Ok... Fair... But to those of us from outside the game industry this behaviour just makes all of you look bad, it makes Steam reviews look unreliable, and frankly is just disrespectful to the Steamverse.

Okay, I know that the film could be talking more about Programming and all these Technical Stuff, but all of us need to know one thing: "We're trying to make a series that can be enjoyed by people who don't have any game dev knowledge and by those who do." -Daniel(From SGJ)They will not fill this up with all technical things and hard-to-understand commands, everyone needs to understand what is going on, and C'MON this is just the FIRST Episode, I can see a lot of people just hating and criticizing.

I really can't understand all these people complaining about "little content" and "high price" on the forumIt will be(for now) 5 Episodes with at least 30 Minutes each, only in the First Episode we have 2 Extended Interviews, one with 12:23 and the other with 11:33... In the same menu you will have more than 25 Minutes of Pure Awesome Soundtrack by Doseone and Kozilek!!!I could say about 5 Minutes of the First Episode you will find in Trailers.

Best of all is knowing that Episodes will still come till September! (Including their Interviews as well)

To sum up, I think this is very similar to IG:TM. They managed very accurately to convey the experience of a Game Jam.The First Episode is incredibly well made. It is really interesting if you don't have any idea about what a Game Jam is, and how much people can learn from them, not only finding various other ways to develop their products but how they will put this on practice and perform too.And Yes, I've played Navigator till the last circuit and I think it's pretty well and could evolve to something Bigger!

Overall good, and worth the price, but the quality of the filmmaking varies GREATLY between episodes. Episode 3 is the star of the show, both in content and in quality, while episode 5 is the worst overall, with horrible sound (some scenes seem to be recorded without the lav mics), shaky camera work (not guerilla documentarist shaky, bad 'found footage' horror movie shaky) and the works. The three other episodes are okay, and the subject material is interesting and is the reason episode 5 is watchable at all.

If you liked Indie Game: the Movie, are interested in game jams or game development in general, or just like interesting documentaries, you should definitely check out Super Game Jam.